[YOHA]

I have the following setup: Sony 32w655b TV connected with HDMI ARC to my Samsung HW-H750 soundbar. My soundbar is also connected with HDMI to my laptop (Asus n56JN).
When I am watching movies (playing from my laptop to my tv), the audio is only limited to DTS or DD 2.0 since the television somehow downmixes everything to 2.0 before the soundbar gets to process it. Is there a way to avoid this? Or maybe the problem lays with my laptop? It has a HD4600 integrated graphics and audio module.

I was thinking of connecting my laptop straight to my tv with HDMI and then use an optical cable between my laptop and my soundbar.
This is however far from ideal since I have to use two cables to connect my laptop to both the TV and the soundbar. So is there a way to prevent my TV from downmixing the signal with using HDMI cables only?

 

[HDMI Guy]

So is there a way to prevent my TV from downmixing the signal with using HDMI cables only?

Most likely not. Most TVs will only output 2 channel sound when using anything except the TV's internal tuner or in the case of a smart TV the apps on the TV.

 

[YOHA]

I already thought so. I just ordered an optical to mini toslink cable, i will test it tomorrow.

 

[YOHA]

I just connected the optical toslink cable between my soundbar and my laptop and have the following problems:

- I only get sound when I disconnect the HDMI cable between my soundbar and TV (which I use for regular tv watching). When I leave the HDMI cable connected, the soundbar switches to TV sound instead of laptop sound when I select the digital input on the soundbar (d.in). When I disconnect the HDMI cable, laptop audio works as it should.

- I am not sure whether the soundbar is now actually receiving a full 5.1 signal instead of a downmixed signal. When I turn on the auto surround mode on the soundbar, it is supposed to switch to the surround mode whenever a digital 5.1 signal is detected. This works fine with the Netflix app on my TV but when I play a movie through VLC player or MPC-HC (which has a 5.1 signal), the soundbar does not switch to the surround mode which makes me wonder whether the soundbar is actually receiving a 5.1 signal. When I test DTS and DD in the configuration tab of my laptop, it does actually play 5 sounds (L, R, C, RL, RR) and a subwoofer boom (LFE).

Any thoughts on the above mentioned issues?

 

[YOHA]

A short update, it seems to be working now when I play my videos with XBMC (or Kodi). At first the soundbar did not detect a 5.1 signal but when I selected the passthrough option in the audio menu, it did work. This probably means that my laptop (or XBMC) does not do anything with the signal and passes it straight to the soundbar who in turn then encodes it. I will test XBMC some more tonight.

Suggestions are still welcome for the first problem I mentioned.

 

[Lils Roro]

I have the following setup: Sony 32w655b TV connected with HDMI ARC to my Samsung HW-H750 soundbar. My soundbar is also connected with HDMI to my laptop (Asus n56JN).
When I am watching movies (playing from my laptop to my tv), the audio is only limited to DTS or DD 2.0 since the television somehow downmixes everything to 2.0 before the soundbar gets to process it. Is there a way to avoid this? Or maybe the problem lays with my laptop? It has a HD4600 integrated graphics and audio module.

I was thinking of connecting my laptop straight to my tv with HDMI and then use an optical cable between my laptop and my soundbar.
This is however far from ideal since I have to use two cables to connect my laptop to both the TV and the soundbar. So is there a way to prevent my TV from downmixing the signal with using HDMI cables only?

I'm a little confused by your setup. You should be able to get 5.1 audio as well as HD audio from your laptop to your soundbar if that is the soundbar's selected audio input. ARC would only be useful if the audio source were connected directly to the TV (or was coming from one of the TV's apps) rather than being passed through the soundbar. What happens when you disable ARC?

 

[HDMI Guy]

A short update, it seems to be working now when I play my videos with XBMC (or Kodi). At first the soundbar did not detect a 5.1 signal but when I selected the passthrough option in the audio menu, it did work. This probably means that my laptop (or XBMC) does not do anything with the signal and passes it straight to the soundbar who in turn then encodes it. I will test XBMC some more tonight.

Suggestions are still welcome for the first problem I mentioned.

Disable ARC on the soundbar. If ARC is enabled the soundbar will change to the TV input whenever the TV is on.

 

[YOHA]

using pass through also seems to work for HDMI which means I do not need an optical cable at all. The cause of my problem simply is the video player I used. Using a video player that is able to pass the audio to the soundbar without letting the laptop or TV do something with it is the solution. It even works with ARC enabled. Thank you for input.